Anupam Singha Roy

Dr Anupam Singha Roy

Research Fellow

Organisation

Aston University

Research summary

In Newton-SERB proposal, my research addresses the application of metal or metal oxide nanoparticles supported on porous materials for the selected biomass conversion reactions into value added chemicals. Currently, fossil resources provide our energy needs and feedstock in the chemical industry. Their replacement is one of the most challenging tasks faced by this generation. The challenge to a new carbon based fuel economy is biomass must be efficiently converted into molecules that are liquid at ambient conditions with low volatility and high energy content. The most usual bio-fuel that can be derived from carbohydrate is ethanol. This is a very wasteful process because one third of the available carbon is expelled as carbon dioxide. Effective alternative approaches to utilize all the available carbon present in the cellulose would thus be highly desirable. The catalytic conversion of biomass into value-added chemicals has been the subject of intense research efforts during the past decade. Now, I am involving in the design and synthesis of some new recyclable metal nanoparticles grafted on porous basic metal oxides and studied their application as catalysts for the transformation of bio-mass derived platform compounds to various fine chemicals.

Benefit to Society:

1. New nanocatalytic systems (more efficient catalyst) will be derived to develop bio-fuel based technology in industry.

2. To be optimized the HMF oxidation reaction via the variation of reaction temperature, flow of oxygen, concentration of substrate and catalyst etc.

3. Catalytic reactions will be attempted in aqueous media instead of organic solvents, and under solvent-free conditions to make the system eco-friendly. With the use of operando and in situ characterization techniques to follow the material evolution during reaction, we expected significant fundamental results on the reaction mechanisms over these catalysts